Abstract:

Political posters, an artistic medium that has long been applied as an effective tool of propaganda by the Chinese, used women as a vehicle in disseminating national policies to a mass audience. This thesis closely analyzes the March 8 Special Issue of Revolution Poster published by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (1927) and three posters—New View in the Rural Village (1953), A Glorious Production Model (1954), and New China’s Female Parachuters (1955)—issued by the Communist Party of China (CCP) to examine their respective portrayals of women, and investigate the methods in which women were used as subjects of propaganda during 20th century China. A main portion of the thesis provides a thorough visual and textual analysis of the contents presented by the four posters. The thesis also expounds the contrasts of the posters issued by the KMT and the CCP in terms of genres, portrayals of women, intended audiences and messages, and attempts to explore the policies on women’s liberation of the two parties. However, by interpreting the information and meaning of the posters within the relevant historical background in which they came from, this thesis also points out a commonality shared by the two parties regarding the issue of women’s liberation. The thesis argues that despite their strikingly different visual representations, the four posters which all take women as their main propaganda subjects emphasize the relationship between women and the nation, more particularly, to stress the necessity of urging women to directly and fully participate in the movements benefitting the country in order to achieve their own liberation.